The present invention relates to a method for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface having connected devices and/or applications, the human-machine interface having assigned to it directly or indirectly a processing unit, a device for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface of correspondingly connected devices and/or applications; the human-machine interface having at least one input device and at least one output device and including a processing unit and/or is connected to a processing unit, as well as a computer program product.
Devices and methods for human-machine interfaces are used quite generally in numerous devices and applications, including automotive applications. Up to now, these devices and methods have been based on a hard-programmed display which is connected directly and inseparably to the application programs. Such a human-machine interface for use in a motor vehicle is described, for example, in European Published Patent Application No. 0 701 826.
Furthermore, a vehicle communications system having a display and an control unit is described in International Published Patent Application No. WO 01/00452, in which a graphic user interface based on HTML/XML page format is implemented, for which standardized HTML modules, XML modules and ActiveX modules are used as basic modules. The implemented graphic user interface includes an MMI application module in the form of an HTTP server which is generated via an assigned file system HTML page or XML page and which can be implemented in the control computer or in the display and control unit or distributed in both components, as well as an assigned browser or interpreter in the display and control unit for the representation of these generated pages. The system works without a standardized operating system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device for producing a display and an control environment of a largely universally usable dynamic human-machine interface.
The above and other beneficial objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a method and device as described herein.
According to one example embodiment of the present invention, the method for producing a display and control environment of a human-machine interface includes the following steps: retrieving stored generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface by the processing unit and or the automatic transmission of the data to the processing unit as a function of certain parameters; retrieving the stored data, e.g., of functional data, of the connected devices and/or applications by the processing unit and/or automatically transmitting the data to the processing unit; and linking the retrieved and/or transmitted generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface to the retrieved and/or transmitted data of the connected devices and/or applications in the processing unit, and generating display and/or control structures on the human-machine interface as a function of the linkage.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, the generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface have environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data, as well as, separately from this, functional and/or functional group-dependent data of connectible devices. The environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data may include, for example, data of the designated place of use, for example, the data may be distinguishable depending on whether the human-machine interface in the vehicle is being used for a business or a private purpose. Such data include, for example, design and color data of the displays or their components. The functional and/or functional group-dependent data include, for example, data of the structural design of display images and/or their components, data of the menu structure or the linkage of the displays.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, the environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data are put together with the retrieved data of the functional and/or functional group-dependent data as a function of predefined parameters, which at least determine which of the stored data of the one and/or the other group are retrieved or transmitted.
Another example embodiment of the method according to the present invention provides that, in a first step, functional and/or functional group-dependent data are retrieved and/or automatically transmitted. Thereafter, in a further step, environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data are automatically retrieved and/or transmitted corresponding to the retrieved and/or transmitted functional and/or functional group-dependent data and/or as a function of predefined parameters. In addition, the data of the connected devices and/or applications are automatically retrieved and/or transmitted. The retrieved and/or transmitted data are linked together and displays and/or control structures are produced on the human-machine interface, with the aid of the retrieved and/or transmitted data.
In the case of use of the human-machine interface in a motor vehicle, according to an example embodiment of the present invention, the environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data include vehicle-specific data, e.g., on the manufacturer and/or the vehicle type and/or data on the vehicle appointments, etc. It may further be provided that the functional and/or functional group-dependent data have data on appearance and/or at least one function of at least one program-controlled representation, e.g., of an applet, for each of several vehicles.
The data of the connected devices and/or applications may contain data on functions of the connected devices and/or applications, e.g., at least one function corresponding to one program-controlled display.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention for the use in a motor vehicle, the following method steps are provided: retrieving and/or automatically transmitting the data which represent the appearance and/or the function of at least one program-controlled display, e.g., of an applet; retrieving and/or automatically transmitting at least vehicle-specific parameters of environment-specific data corresponding to the retrieved data of the at least one program-controlled display and/or retrieval and/or transmission of the vehicle-specific parameters as a function of certain predefinitions or parameters; retrieving and/or automatically transmitting the functional data of the connected devices and/or applications corresponding to the retrieved data of the at least one program-controlled display; and generating displays and/or control structures on the human-machine interface having at least one program-controlled display corresponding to the retrieved and/or transmitted data linked with one another.
In addition, at least a part of the data, e.g., functional data of the devices and/or applications to be displayed and/or controlled, may be stored in a central device of a data communications network, for example, the Internet or intranets, and are retrieved and/or automatically transmitted by the processing unit via a communications connection that is able to be established.
A further example embodiment of the present invention provides that at least one part of the generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface and/or additional data of the display and/or control environment are stored in a central device of a data communications network and are retrieved and/or automatically transmitted by the processing device via a communications connection that is able to be established.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, the stored data of the display and/or control environment and/or the stored data of the devices and/or applications to be displayed and/or controlled, are updated at defined time periods and/or in dependence upon events, and are retrieved and/or automatically transmitted at defined time periods and/or in dependence upon events. In the case of application in a vehicle, such events may include items such as xe2x80x9cignition on/offxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cnew device and/or application being connected to human-machine interfacexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmanual request for stored dataxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cnew data availablexe2x80x9d and/or xe2x80x9cvehicle in servicexe2x80x9d. However, the foregoing is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Other events are also possible.
In an example embodiment of a device according to the present invention, the processing device has assigned to it one or more storage devices in which generic data of the display and/or control environment of the human-machine interface and data, e.g., functional data of the connected devices and/or applications are stored. According to the present invention, the processing device is configured so that the stored generic data of the display and/or control environment as a function of certain parameters or predefined items of whatever kind, and stored data of the connected devices and/or applications, are retrievable and/or are retrieved, and/or are transmissible and/or are transmitted, and the retrieved and/or transmitted generic data of the display and/or control environment are linkable and/or linked to the retrieved and/or transmitted data of the connected devices and/or applications. Furthermore, the processing device is configured so that display or control structures are able to be generated and/or are generated on the human-machine interface in dependence upon the linkage having occurred.
Generic data are to be understood to include such data as relate not to a special connected device and/or application and their functions, but relate to the functionality and the appearance of the displays of the display and control structures.
According to one example embodiment of the device according to the present invention, the generic data are subdivided into two groups. On the one hand, these include environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data, and on the other hand, they include functional and functional group-dependent data of the displays, as well as of the display and control structure. In this regard, the processing unit is configured so that retrieved and/or transmitted data of the environment-specific, device-specific and customer-specific data and retrieved and/or transmitted data of the functional and/or functional group-dependent data are able to be brought together and/or are brought together in the processing device.
An example embodiment of the device according to the present invention provides that the processing unit is configured so that data of the functional and/or functional group-dependent data are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are automatically transmissible and/or are transmitted, data of the environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are transmissible and/or are transmitted corresponding to the retrieved and/or transmitted functional and functional group-specific data and/or as a function of certain parameters or predefined values as well as data of the connected devices and/or applications. The processing unit is further configured so that the retrieved and/or transmitted data are able to be linked with one another and/or are linked, and in dependence upon the linkage, display and/or control structures of the human-machine interface are able to be generated and/or are generated.
If the environment-specific and/or device-specific and/or customer-specific data have vehicle-specific data, and the functional and/or functional group-specific data have data corresponding to appearance and/or at least one function of at least one program-controlled display, e.g., of an applet, for each of several vehicles, vehicle types and/or vehicle equipment, and the function data of the connected devices and/or applications correspond to the functions of the connected devices and/or applications, at least one function corresponding to a program-controlled display, then the processing unit may be configured so that the data, which represent the construction and/or the function of at least one program-controlled display, are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are automatically transmissible and/or are transmitted, and at least the vehicle-specific parameters or data of the environment-specific, device-specific and/or customer-specific data are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are transmissible and/or are transmitted corresponding to the data of the at least one program-controlled display and/or in dependence upon defined parameters and predefined values. In addition, the data, e.g., the functional data, of the connected devices and/or applications corresponding to the at least one program-controlled display are retrieved or are retrievable and/or are automatically transmitted or are transmissible. Furthermore, the processing unit in an example embodiment is configured so that, with respect to the retrieved and/or transmitted data, displays and/or display structures and/or control elements and/or control structures are able to be generated and/or are generated on the human-machine interface having at least one program-controlled display.
According to an example embodiment of the device according to the present invention, at least one part of the data, e.g., functional data of the connected devices and/or applications is stored in a central device (server) of a data communications network, in particular, of the Internet or an intranet, and the processing unit is configured so that these data are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are automatically transmissible and/or are transmitted by the processing unit via a communications connection.
Another example embodiment provides that at least one part of the generic data of the display and control environment of the human-machine interface is stored in a central device of a data communications network, for example, of the Internet or an intranet, and the processing unit is configured so that the data are retrievable by the processing unit via a communications connection that may be established and/or are automatically transmissible to the processing unit.
Besides the Internet, any other communications connection may be used as communications connection for retrieving the data or for data transmission, for example, a point-to-point transmission method or a point-to-multipoint method.
An example embodiment of the processing unit provides that the stored data of the display and/or control environment and/or the data of the devices to be displayed and/or to be controlled and/or applications may be updated and/or are updated, and the processing unit is configured so that the required data are retrievable in defined time periods and/or are retrievable and/or are retrieved and/or are automatically transmissible and/or are transmitted event-dependently.
According to another example embodiment of the present invention, the processing unit may also be positioned in one of the connected devices, or may be configured to be a part of the control device of the connected device. However, it may also be provided that some method steps run in one processing unit and the other part of the method steps runs in one or several control units of the connected devices.
The present invention further relates to a computer program product which may be loaded directly into a memory of a processing unit and includes program sections with which the steps of the method according to the present invention may be performed and/or are performed, when the program product is running in the processing unit.
The present invention is further described below on the basis of example embodiments.